Open House International

Hoşkara, Şebnem Önal; Dinçyürek, Özgür; Vural, S. Müjdem

2015 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-02-2015-B0001

The international conference on Architectural Education, was held at the Faculty of Architecture, Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) in Famagusta, North Cyprus, on April 3-4, 2014. This conference has been organized in collaboration with the European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE), under the title of “Unspoken Issues in Architectural Education (UIAE)”.

Acar, Yiğit

2015 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-02-2015-B0002

We can define architectural design studios as environments of simulation. Within this simulation limitations of real life architectural problems are constructed, yet the constructed reality is far from the reality of existing practice.In Architecture: Story of Practice, Dana Cuff, makes a sociological study of the architectural design practice and in the volume she discusses design studios as limited versions of the actual design practice. As compared to the actual practice in the studio the students are alone, there isn’t a multiplicity of actors involved in the process, and the design problems are clearly defined. Cuff points out to these shortcomings and provides guidelines to overcome them.One of the shortcomings mentioned in Cuff’s study is that: design studios do not represent the variety of actors that are present in a real life situation. Cuff suggests to include representatives of different actors in the studio practice to overcome this. If the studio fails to support itself with a variety of actors, to compensate the short coming of actors, the instructors start taking the role of many possible participants of a design process. The instructors simulate: the user, the owner, the engineer, the contractor and so on so forth. This type of an approach in the design studios leads to a certain result: the ideological construct of the instructors becomes the foundation of the constructed reality of the studio.This study explores the ideological construction of the design studio through active involvements with undergraduate students. Through the findings of two discussion sessions, students’ own ideological positions, their relationship with the external realities and limits imposed on such relations by the studio instructor’s own ideological stances are explored.

Açikgöz, Ece Kumkale

2015 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-02-2015-B0003

Structuring the outline for an architectural design studio experience has a significant role in students’ meaningful design experiences. Meaningful experience is related with students’ receptivity and idea generation for the ill-structured problems of architectural design. This identification influences the study, which investigates the application of a model for structuring the design studio experience, organized to occur in two phases; problem reception and problem solving. The model employs a combination of two different techniques with a special focus on reflexivity. It completes the extensions level required for the ICE Approach with the C-Sketch ideation technique by employing their adapted versions for architectural design studio practice. The common features of these techniques are their adaptability to any problem, explication centered and process oriented natures, focus on effective brainstorming and suitability on design teamwork studies. There is a remarkable potential to correlate the results of the two techniques.The model was processed within a vertical design studio at Gazi University, Department of Architecture. It enabled getting use of diverse backgrounds within a design team by structuring the collective design process and optimizing the contribution rates of the team members. The method was employed to guide the design study of the experimental group of two teams with ten members in total. The control group was the randomly selected two teams from other teams that did not apply the model, with eleven members in total. The members of the two groups were applied a semi-structured questionnaire at the end of the semester, with a special focus on the internal consistency within the answers of the members of a single team. The results of the qualitative study indicated that the explication based structuring of the design studio experience has had a positive impact on achieving consistency and coherency in the design processes of the experimental groups.

Bertram, Peter

2015 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-02-2015-B0004

A problem is typically defined prior to an architectural process and the result is seen as a solution. The process as a whole is conceived as problem solving. However, the artistic element of the process is inseparable from constructing the problem. From the artistic point of view the solution is merely a derivative.Conventional understanding of artistic creation is sometimes coloured by the misconception that invention first and foremost takes place in the mind of the artist parallel or prior to the actual process. However, as far as the artistic element in an architectural process is concerned the problem cannot be abstracted from the specificity of the material, the drawings, models etc., which constitutes the project under development. The problem is an immanent relational field and invention is triggered by the difference between maker and architectural media.The aim of the paper is to portray the artistic practice as a learning process different from communication of knowledge. It proposes a kind of leaning not about improvement of skills and competences but rather concerned with the dynamics of a material field. It emphasises the role of technique and presents architectural media as the prime material field investigated by the process.The discussion uses examples of assignments and student projects developed under my supervision to demonstrate how a problem field is framed by the ordering of techniques.

Hadian, Amir Sasan

2015 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-02-2015-B0005

By using two cognitive tools, metaphors and analogies, structural concepts can be made more observable and touchable for architects. These tools can help architects and designers to physically demonstrate structural concepts for better understanding. Since familiarity with the structural concepts is imperative for architects, it is important to determine the extent in which architects sharpen and solidify their understanding of structural concept using two very valuable cognitive tools, metaphors and analogies. Although in recent years, the number of studies focusing on the usage of metaphor and analogy was on the rise, very few works have included views and opinions of correspondent users in the architectural domain. Furthermore, having both metaphor and analogy under one investigation could help the researcher to see which one, metaphor or analogy, professional architects prefer to use more and which one of them architects use in various stages in their design process. In this regard, purposive sampling was applied to collect the data from ten professional Iranian architects who had the experience of working in this domain for more than 10 years. The participants of this study went through a semi-structured interview and their reports were analysed qualitatively. The findings reveal that while designing, Iranian professional architects do not have any preferences because they can equally apply both metaphors and analogies, but when dealing with their students in academic setting, using metaphor as a cognitive tool can lead to better results. Furthermore, Iranian architects use metaphor more in the initial stages of the architectural design process because according to them this physiognomic perception enhance understanding of a design situation and stimulate creative solutions to the problem at hand. Conversely, analogy is mainly used in the concept generation phase.

Hassanpour, Badiossadat; Ani, Adi Irfan Che

2015 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-02-2015-B0006

Art and architecture are multidisciplinary fields with complicated assessments that, similar to the teaching and the learning process, are inconsistent with common assessment models. During submission, the presence of jurors, who have different approaches and standards for evaluating design projects, makes this issue more complicated. Numerous assessment and grading models are being used in architecture departments around the world. Some of these methods are based on the experiences of instructors from their lives as students, whereas some are based on university systems. Grading policies seem to be clear in most fields, but when the object of grading is an artistic product with different levels to be assessed and graded, the issue becomes more complex. This observation is especially true in the case in which quality is given a numerical grade.The nature of skills that students are expected to develop and that are going to be assessed is often subjective. Such skills include invention, problem solving, and presentation. Problems of reliability, personal criterion, and unique perceptions lend difficulty in assessing such skills using traditional methods.This research suggests that a criteria-based assessment and grading model is a more effective model in promoting student learning, making assessment and grading less complex and more explicit. The effectiveness and reliability of the proposed and implemented criteria-based grading system has been tested at Eastern Mediterranean University using distributed questionnaires and a Rasch measurement system.

Hougaard, Anna Katrine

2015 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-02-2015-B0007

Architectural drawing is changing because architects today draw with computers. Due to this change digital diagrams employed by computational architectural practices are often emphasized as powerful structures of control and organisation in the design process. But there are also diagrams, which do not follow computational logic worth paying attention to. In the following I will investigate one such other kind of diagram, a sketch diagram, which has a play-like capacity where rules can be invented and changed as you go. In that way, sketch diagrams are related to steered indeterminacy and authorial ways of directing behaviour of artefacts and living things without controlling this behaviour completely. I analyse a musical composition by John Cage as an example of a sketch diagram, and then hypothesize that orthogonal, architectural drawing can work in similar ways. Thereby I hope to point out important affordance of architectural drawing as a ¬hybrid between the openness of hand-sketching and the rule-basedness of diagramming, an affordance which might be useful in the migrational zone of current architectural drawing where traditional hand drawing techniques and computer drawing techniques are being combined with each other.

Moonen, Faas; Veeger, Tom

2015 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-02-2015-B0008

Education in the Department of the Built Environment (Eindhoven University of Technology) aims to prepare students for multidisciplinary design teams. The Bachelor program offers a broad range incorporating essentials of urbanism, architecture, structure, building physics, real estate, construction, services et cetera. This broad BSc program lays a foundation for students and is followed by a Master program that focuses on specialization. There are six specializations: Architecture, Urban Design & Planning, Structural Design, Building Physics & Services, Real Estate Management & Development and Construction Management & Engineering.Multidisciplinary in the BSc is more than offering a variety of knowledge in courses and lectures. The Department also puts a lot of effort to train students to gain experiences in integral design teams. This takes shape in studios but is best expressed in the Multi-project (a semester assignment in the last year of the Bachelor). This assignment is organized by 9 coaches (from all specializations in the Master). The assessment is always a practice-based issue, and students have to cooperate as a design team during one semester. Developing the Multi-project has been a long route that took place over many years with several adjustments according to experiences and information gathered by student inquiries.This paper gives a very global overview of the present setup to contextualize this assignment. After that, the main part of this paper focuses on the kickoff (first 2-3 weeks). Here students start in parallel studios, meant to put them on track for integral design. Each studio combines two disciplines and compels students to precede design by analyzing all kind of issues in the light of the specific assignment.Because of the complexity of this assignment we frequently ask students to fill in an enquiry. Because of this we are now able to draw conclusions from major changes during the last 10-14 assignments (2007 – 2013).

Pauwels, Sigrid; Walsche, Johan De; Declerck, Dra. Lies

2015 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-02-2015-B0009

The authors reflect on the academic bachelor and master programs of architecture. From the perspective of higher education policy in Flanders, Belgium, they examine the intrinsic challenges of the academic educational setting, and the way architectural education can fit in and benefit from it, without losing its specific design oriented qualities. Therefore, they unravel the process of architectural design research, as a discipline-authentic way of knowledge production, leading to the identification of a number of implicit features of an academic architectural learning environment. The disquisition is based on educational arguments pointed out by literature and theory. Furthermore, the authors analyze whether this learning environment can comply with general standards of external quality assurance and accreditation systems. Doing so, they reveal the Achilles’ heel of architectural education: the incompatibility of the design jury with formalized assessment frameworks. Finally, the authors conclude with an advocacy for academic freedom. To assure the quality of academic architectural programs, it is necessary that universities maintain a critical attitude towards standardized policy frameworks.

Schaeverbeke, Robin; Aarts, Hélène; Heylighen, Ann

2015 Open House International

doi: 10.1108/OHI-02-2015-B0010

Teaching drawing in architectural education raises questions regarding the representation of spatial experiences: to what extent can sensory experiences of space be intensified through observing and drawing and, perhaps equally important, what those drawings would look like?In the context of their drawing classes, the authors started to inquire the discrepancy between conceiving and perceiving space, and the aptitude of representing spatial concepts upon a two dimensional surface. Through observation and translating observation into drawings, students discover that conventionalised ways of drawing, such as linear perspective, only reveal part of the story. While linear perspective remains the dominant way of representing space, obviously visible in photography, film, 3D-imaging and architectural impressions, the authors started looking for ways of drawing which inquire possibilities of expressing spatial experiences. Drawing as an activity which is able to enhance spatial understanding, rather than as a tool to communicate virtual spaces. Next to drawing as a ‘skill’, which can be learnt, the drawing classes started to inquire non-visual aspects of space by analysing attributes of spatiality, which are difficult to convey through two dimensional drawings.Starting from a contextualisation of spatial drawing within architectural practice, the article examines the discrepancy between geometric space and lived space, in order to reveal the dubious role of linear perspective within (architectural) culture and history. After a brief return to how we imagined and represented space in our childhood, the article presents a series of practice based examples. Drawing on the authors’ teaching practice, it illustrates possibilities to expand our visual language by exploring space and spatiality through observing and drawing.